New Dispute Resolution Procedure in Dubai

Written by Omar Obeidat Partner, Head of Intellectual Property, Al Tamimi & Co.

Clients wishing to resolve claims with and/or to recover debts from Dubai based entities, which have clearly defaulted on their payments, can now breathe a sigh of relief.

The Business to Business Dispute Resolution Service (“B2B”) at the Dubai Economic Development Department has facilitated a dispute resolution mechanism for disputes in business to business transactions. This facility allows any complainant, wherever based to file a complaint against trader-licensed entities in Dubai for disputes related to commercial transactions. Specifically, the dispute resolution mechanism accommodates complaints where the defendant/respondent is licensed in Dubai.

Disputes that do not require technical experts and/or have sophisticated contracts, can be resolved through B2B, whose decision is binding. The B2B aims to reach an amicable settlement between both parties within an average of 10 working days.

B2B has already addressed last year over 1000 disputes, both local and international. Although there is no exhaustive list that B2B will address in terms of disputes, however, it endeavours to resolve disputes that predominantly relate to commercial transactions. Such transactions would primarily involve either contractual terms or invoices against provision of goods and/or services.

The disputes that are not within the domain of B2B specifically include:

• Disputes related to bounced cheques
• Construction and Technical services
• Electronic Crimes

Resolving disputes administratively provides clients with an alternative sensible option particularly where:

• the amount of claim does not justify resorting to court; or
• when the nature of dispute can be addressed fairly quickly; and
• the contentious issues do not require specific expertise in technical areas or ambiguities requiring court judgment.

The B2B mechanism in terms formalities, requirements and procedures are less demanding than those of the courts and traditional disputes settlement forums. Costs as such are much less when raising disputes with the B2B. Moreover, unlike other UAE authorities, the B2B will accept to consider reviewing documents, which are in English.

For plaintiffs based outside the UAE and wishing to appoint local representatives, the B2B will accept simply signed authorisation / representation letters from the plaintiffs for that purpose. These added facilities with the B2B constitute another cost saving advantage to plaintiffs in terms of legalisation and translation charges.

The B2B services provides assurance to doing business in Dubai and further enables businesses all over the world to avail of a cost effective and time managed dispute resolution mechanism. Al Tamimi & Company are happy to elaborate further and address any questions for this new B2B mechanism to resolve disputes.